The Lexicon of Comicana

by Mort Walker

If a number of words like "plewds," "briffits," "hites," and "grawlixes" have entered your vocabulary, you can thank Mort Walker.

Written as a satire on the comic devices cartoonists use, The Lexicon of Comicana quickly became a textbook for art students. Walker researched cartoons around the world to collect this international set of cartoon symbols. The names he invented for them now appear in dictionaries.

Author Biography: Mort Walker is the creator of the comic strips Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois, with several hundred books in print including anthologies, children's books, instruction and nonfiction. He has won many worldwide awards and founded the International Museum of Cartoon Art and serves as chairman.

Genres: Comics, Art, Nonfiction, Reference, Drawing, Writing, Humor

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Addison Morton Walker, more popularly known as Mort Walker, was an American comic artist, best known for creating the newspaper comic strips Beetle Bailey in 1950 and Hi and Lois in 1954.

Born in El Dorado, Kansas, he grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. He had his first comic published at the age of 11, and sold his first cartoon at 12. At 15 he worked as a comic-strip artist for a daily newspaper and by 18 he became chief editorial designer at Hall Brothers. After graduating from Northeast High School in the Kansas City, Missouri School District, he attended the University of Missouri, where a life size bronze statue of Beetle Bailey sits in front of the alumni center.

In 1943 he was drafted into the United States Army where he spent time in Europe during World War II. He was discharged as a First Lieutenant four years later. After military service and graduation from University of Missouri in 1948, where he was president of the local Kappa Sigma chapter[1], he went to New York to pursue his cartooning career. His first 200 cartoons were rejected, but he was slowly gaining recognition among the editors for his talent. His big break came with Beetle Bailey and another success followed with Hi and Lois. Other noteworthy cartoons he has created include Boner's Ark, Gamin & Patches, Mrs. Fitz's Flats, The Evermores, Sam's Strip and Sam & Silo (the last two with Jerry Dumas).

After more than 50 years in the business, Mort Walker still supervises the daily work at his studio, which also employs 6 of his children.

In 1974 he founded The National Cartoon Museum, and in 1989 he was inducted into the Museum of Cartoon Art Hall of Fame. He received the Reuben Award of 1953 for Beetle Bailey, the National Cartoonist Society Humor Strip Award for 1966 and 1969, the Gold T-Square Award in 1999, the Elzie Segar Award for 1977 and 1999, and numerous other awards for his work and dedication to the art.

In his book The Lexicon of Comicana (1980), written as a satirical look at the devices cartoonists use in their craft, Walker invented a cartoon vocabulary called Symbolia. For example, Walker coined the term "squeans" to describe the starbusts and little circles that appear around a cartoon's head to indicate intoxication. The typographical symbols that stand for profanities, which appear in dialogue balloons in the place of actual dialogue, Walker called "grawlixes."

Reviews

[Théo d'Or]

Oh my. Mort's lexicon made me a lexicologist à mort. Now, my phantasmagoric cogitations mixed with the ephemerality of my diaphanous memories, each more evanescent than the last, when - with an abruptness befitting a cataclysmic apotheosis, a lachrimose peripeteia transpired, precipitating an inexorable concatenation of mirthful sweet nothings, and when I think it all commenced with the dyspeptic ululations of an aberrant colporteur peddling anachronistic bric-à-brac, whose pecuniary aspirations were tantamount to those of a deliquescent cataphract - think of a knight in shining armor who accidentally sings in the rain, the day crescendoed into an epicurean symposium of solipsistic elocutionists, each more loquacious than the preceding, engaging in a cacophonous cacophony of paronomasia and anacoluthon, all whilst indulging in an interminable ambrosial repast, which, in their ostentatious plénitude, were as arcane and esoteric as the very bulshicon with which I now regale you, mon cher blameless reader.

[Haley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was entertaining and the creation of language to describe visual storytelling with lines and symbols was very creative and fun.

I’m interested in a more nuanced and thoughtful examination of the role of symbols and their “universality” as well as recognition of the prejudice inherent to the humor of many “universal” tropes and archetypes.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

RIP Mort Walker! Every aspiring cartoonist needs to read this! Incredibly smart and hilarious.

[Tanya Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an entertaining read for a brief over-view of some of the cartoonist's tricks of the trade. However, it lacks the visual impact and depth of Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art a later and much fuller investigation of visual storytelling.

[Bogdan Sorlea · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very nice synthesis of the basic elements and techniques in comic design. A good start for beginners.

[BJ Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because: who doesn't want to use words like emanata, fumetti, and maladicta? Fast, fun & fascinating read.